i can't give much advice on playing it considering i pretty much suck myself and havent really tried to figure this stuff out. bob's lead parts are in general so wierd and awesome sounding, i love it when he comes through in the mix with the wierdness during the transition.

the best i can do is to say that jdarks tab is in the style of 72-74 bob... and that he is definitley emphasizing the chord tones of IKYR.

on a personal note, i dropped 3 tabs with my buddy and we listened to DP 19 a few weeks ago... that transition is one of the hottest ever... and bob is there in full force with his lead. very rhythmic and not very soaring like jerry. i guess i would say focus on the rhythm, thats what is throwing you off in reading the tab.

at least thats the problem i always have with tab, i can't figure otu the rhythm of the notes in the tab.

Not sure about J. Darks' version but I have worked out Weir's version off Europe '72.

To this day I still struggle with it. I can do the final chords, note for note or at least it sounds note for note, but the initial part after coming off his signature riff is hard to duplicate. When I watch the U tubes of him, like from sunshine daydream, it seems he has some sort of loop delay that allows him to set up several things simultaneously so that they overlap to give that sort of "farewell China Cat" feel leading into the feeling groovy jam.

Careful listening to the Europe '72 version seems to suggest that he is doing two guitar parts at once, possibly a studio overlay, which makes me think he had to use a delay technique. Hope I figure something out on it someday as it is this small little section that still cripples my acoustic solo version of China Cat/Rider.

followed that link on youtube oconnors posted a while back. he posted a link to the intro but here's the same guy doing an instructional on the last solo/transition. the beginning he's doing jerry's part but the last 30-40 seconds are 100% bob riffs from that transition. def. worth a look-see.

I went back to the transition to give it another go off of Europe '72. Tune your guitar up to A 440 = 451 -452 Hz to get in tune with the CD, and definitely unhook one of your speaker wires on one side of the stereo to make it clear as a bell. Broke my G string about 10 minutes into giving it a go, so I'm down for the moment. But no question about it, there is an overlayed track to his repetitous descending note lines. Not too hard, I'll get this soon enough. Garcia on the other channel is just doing tenth fret D to G chords, something like that. There may be a way to play all of Weir's noodling duplicate parts. I'll keep you posted when I get back up.

BuddhaG wrote:followed that link on youtube oconnors posted a while back. he posted a link to the intro but here's the same guy doing an instructional on the last solo/transition. the beginning he's doing jerry's part but the last 30-40 seconds are 100% bob riffs from that transition. def. worth a look-see.

Just checked out singlpilot on the link you posted. His are the first Garcia and Weir renditions of the Euro '72 riffs that almost match mine, which is kind of amazing considering that our approaches were independent of each other. Some of his riff renditions are closer to the truth than mine, but the same can be said for some of mine compared to his. In any event, if you want to put time into getting the China/Rider Euro '72 stuff learned, then singlpilot can get you 95% of the way there, and his stuff is about as correct as you'll find anywhere. Really amazing that he learned them as a kid, which may mean he did it off of albums. If that is the case then my hat's off to him as that would be a super human effort. If he learned them off of CDs then he's similar to me in listening by ear capability. Anyone can do it if they just commmit to putting in the time and effort. Very rewarding when you start to make headway and the ledgendary sounds start to come right from your own fingerboard.